Cape Cod Marathon has company

FALMOUTH – The 34th running of the Cape Cod Marathon is Sunday in Falmouth, and the main event will have company this year as a new half-marathon has been added to the weekend.

CAPE COD TIMES

FALMOUTH – The 34th running of the Cape Cod Marathon is Sunday in Falmouth, and the main event will have company this year as a new half-marathon has been added to the weekend.

The 13.1-mile Cape Cod half sets the stage on Saturday with a field of 1,000 competing. The action begins at 7:30 a.m. on Main Street in downtown Falmouth.

On Sunday, nearly 1,400 marathoners will start at 8:30 a.m. from the Village Green in downtown. An additional 950 runners will be in the marathon relay with teams of two to five combining to cover the 26.2-mile course.

Another new twist this year is the Clam Chowdah Challenged with 100-plus runners doing double duty on Saturday and Sunday. They’ll be attempting to do both the half and full marathon, all for the glory of having said they did it – and for a commemorative T-shirt and chowder bowl.

The Falmouth Track Club ably organizes the races, under the steady hand of longtime director Courtney Bird and supported by nearly 800 volunteers. With more than 3,300 runners total, this is one of the Cape’s largest and most popular running weekends. All of the events sold out quickly.

“We’ve created quite a buzz for the weekend,” said Bird. “It’s a great time of year on the Cape and it’s good for business having all these runners, their families and friends in town. We’ve got some real good quality in the races.”

Prize money will be paid for the half ($4,000) and the marathon ($12,600). In addition, the marathon is once again the New England USA Track and Field championship with another $3,200 on the line.

The field for the marathon is the largest ever and based on past performances of the top entrants, it looks as if the winner will have to run 2:25 or better to win. The long-standing men’s course record is 2:17:35, set in 1986 by Randy Thomas.

Bryan Morseman of Addison, N.Y. has a personal best of 2:20:11, run in May at Pocono Mountain Run for the Red Marathon. Tom Deeg of Eastham ran Boston last April in 2:27.34. Hari Iyer of Cambridge (2:28:39) and Jim Johnson of Salem, N.H., (2:29) figure to be in the mix.

Former champions Gregg Cornell, Craig Fram and Reno Stirrat are also entered.The women’s marathon also looks to be one the deepest in race history. Mary-Lynn Currier, 47, of Canton, Conn., is a four-time champion and has won the last two.

Canadian-born Emily Kroshus, 28, of Boston has the fastest time – 2:24:47 run at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon in May. Elle Pishny of Boston set a personal best of 2:44:20 at Boston in April.

Beth Nelson of Harwich, who won the race back to back in 1984-85 is also returning.Former U.S. Olympic marathoner Cathy O’Brien set the women’s record of 2:37:06 in 1987. In the half-marathon, Kenya native Joseph Ekuom, the 2009 marathon champ, has a personal best of 1:04. Susannah Landreth of Newburyport is the top seeded woman with a PR of 1:24:46.

Sonja Wilkey of Midlothian, Va., has run 131:35.

ROAD RACE CANCELED: The 5K Monster Dash scheduled for Saturday at the Wing School in Sandwich has been canceled.

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